By Aizat Shailoobek kyzy /Global Voices/ – Growing Chinese economic influence has brought a flood of goods into Kyrgyzstan’s stores, Chinese traders into its markets, and businessmen into its shops, restaurants and clubs.
The everyday presence of Chinese in Kyrgyzstan’s cities is strongly opposed by an ultranationalist movement called Kyrgyz-Chorolor, also known as Kyrk Choro, which has vowed to defend and strengthen Kyrgyz identity, as they perceive it.
As the trading relationships fostered by the Belt & Road Initiative mature, China has become the largest exporter of textiles and other manufactured goods into Kyrgyzstan. At US$5 billion, imports from China represent more than 50 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s inbound trade.
Today, almost half of foreign direct investment in Kyrgyzstan comes from China, with China’s Exim Bank owning around 40 percent of the country’s debt, according to OECD data.
The volume of Chinese goods and business has created a sense across many parts of Kyrgyzstani society that their country is being occupied by China. This feeling is complicated by Kyrgyzstan’s recent history, as ethnic Kyrgyz under the Soviet Union were a minority in what was then an autonomous republic.
Kyrgyzstan’s recent political landscape has included the collapse of numerous governments, and ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, which have shaped political parties and allegiances.
The arrival of the Chinese brings potential for access to resources, competition for markets, and another element of instability into an already fraught environment. These conflicts also drive debates over Kyrgyzstan’s national identity, and to what degree it is intertwined with Kyrgyz ethnicity.
The Kyrgyz-Chorolor, or Forty Knights, takes its name from the traditional Kyrgyz epic of Manas, but their roughly 5,000 members include many middle-class professionals, such as physicians, professors, and lawyers. They also have acknowledged ties with Kyrgyzstan’s Interior Ministry, even as government corruption is a target of their attacks.
Its activism draws on nationalist sentiment based primarily on discontent with what it deems as the government’s betrayal of the ethnic Kyrgyz.
According to statements made by the Kyrgyz-Chorolor on social media, and in interviews with Global Voices, the group claims that the Kyrgyz government is “corrupt” and “pro-China” as it puts “business interests before people.”
More conservative members also allege that the Epic of the Manas, regarded as a repository of Kyrgyz customs, history, and code of ethics, casts the Chinese as a traditional enemy of the Kyrgyz tribes.
The Kyrk-Chorolor have pursued a dual strategy to push their vision of a pure Kyrgyz ethnic identity, combining online harassment and mobilization with real-world verbal and physical violence, raids on markets and nightclubs, and public demonstrations.
A former leader of the movement, Zamirbek Kochorbaev has used Facebook to post anti-Chinese content.
In 2018, he wrote that his group demands a moratorium on issuing Kyrgyz passports to foreigners. Almost 1,000 people supported the group with comments such as “Chinese should be deported!”
In yet another post, he claimed in December 2018 that “China is envious of the Kyrgyz land and lakes”. Kochorbayev was last year replaced as leader by 35-year-old Ruslan Adylov – a move that Kochorbayev himself supported in order to rejuvenate the organisation.
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